The invention relates to chemical engineering and has particular reference to methods of decomposing calcium carbonate into calcium oxide and carbon dioxide gas. As is commonly known, both of said products find extensive applications in some various branches of industry. Calcium oxide, for instance, is widely used in the building practice as a binder.
At present it is widely known to use a thermal method for decomposing calcium carbonate into calcium oxide and carbon dioxide gas. The known method practically resides in that natural limestone is calcined at from 1000.degree. to 1200.degree.C in special kilns.
The cardinal disadvantages inherent in said method resides in that it involves much heat added from external sources which, in turn, requires much fuel expenditure and, moreover, the process is rather lengthy; thus, under industrial conditions the process for the thermal decomposition of calcium carbonate is known to take several hours to complete.
Recently, another method of decomposing calcium carbonate into calcium oxide and carbon dioxide gas has become known which exposes the starting material to an ionizing radiation, and in particular, to gamma radiation.
So far the said method is carried into effect under high vacuum, and in particular, at a vacuum in the working chamber on the order of 10.sup.-.sup.4 mm Hg, and with a power of absorbed radiation dose as low as some hundredths of a kilorad per second (cf., e.g., Proceedings of the Tashkent conference on peaceful use of atomic energy, "Radiolysis of some inorganic compounds in an intense gamma-field" by I. M. Blaunstein and S. V. Stardubtsev, vol, I, pp. 163-168, published by the Academy of Sciences of the Uzbek SSR, Tashkent, 1961/in Russian/).
The said method is advantageous over the thermal one in that it involves no external heat addition, which is indispensable in the known method, and requiring great amounts. However, said method involving the use of an ionizing radiation suffers from some disadvantages, such as its long duration, its taking up to several hundredths of hours for calcium carbonate to completely decompose, as well as, as stated above, the method involves high vacuum which much hampers its industrial application due to difficulties in providing a hermetically sealed working chamber under industrial conditions.